Spin currents in rough graphene nanoribbons: Universal fluctuations and spin injection

We investigate spin conductance in zigzag graphene nanoribbons and propose a spin injection mechanism based only on graphitic nanostructures. We find that nanoribbons with atomically straight, symmetric edges show zero spin conductance, but nonzero spin Hall conductance. Only nanoribbons with asymmetrically shaped edges give rise to a finite spin conductance and can be used for spin injection into graphene. Furthermore, nanoribbons with rough edges exhibit mesoscopic spin conductance fluctuations with a universal value of $\mathrm{rms} G_\mathrm{s}\approx 0.4 e/4\pi$.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures, PdfLaTeX, accepted for publication in Physical Review Letter

The effect of melatonin on bacterial translocation following ischemia/reperfusion injury in a rat model of superior mesenteric artery occlusion

Background: Acute mesenteric ischemia is a life-threatening vascular emergency resulting in tissue destruction due to ischemia-reperfusion injury. Melatonin, the primary hormone of the pineal gland, is a powerful scavenger of reactive oxygen species (ROS), including the hydroxyl and peroxyl radicals, as well as singlet oxygen, and nitric oxide. In this study, we aimed to investigate whether melatonin prevents harmful effects of superior mesenteric ischemia-reperfusion on intestinal tissues in rats. Methods: Rats were randomly divided into three groups, each having 10 animals. In group I, the superior mesenteric artery (SMA) was isolated but not occluded. In group II and group III, the SMA was occluded immediately distal to the aorta for 60 minutes. After that, the clamp was removed and the reperfusion period began. In group III, 30 minutes before the start of reperfusion, 10 mg/kg melatonin was administered intraperitonally. All animals were sacrified 24 hours after reperfusion. Tissue samples were collected to evaluate the I/R-induced intestinal injury and bacterial translocation (BT). Results: There was a statistically significant increase in myeloperoxidase activity, malondialdehyde levels and in the incidence of bacterial translocation in group II, along with a decrease in glutathione levels. These investigated parameters were found to be normalized in melatonin treated animals (group III). Conclusion: We conclude that melatonin prevents bacterial translocation while precluding the harmful effects of ischemia/reperfusion injury on intestinal tissues in a rat model of superior mesenteric artery occlusion. © 2015 Ozban et al.; licensee BioMed Central

Failure of conventional retrograde cystography to detect bladder ruptures in pelvic trauma

Conventional retrograde cystography is often used to investigate patients with suspected bladder ruptures in pelvic trauma. Clinical indicators suggestive of a rupture include haematuria and suprapubic tenderness and should increase the suspicion of bladder and urinary tract injury and prompt the clinician to undertake further investigations. Two patients with high-energy pelvic fractures had bladder ruptures detected intraoperatively despite normal preoperative retrograde cystogram. Both patients had significant clinical indicators suggestive of underlying bladder and urinary tract injury. In both cases, a routine conventional retrograde cystogram was performed but failed to identify the full extent of the bladder injury. A possible reason for misdiagnosis in these cases is the delay between injury and investigation due to tertiary referral of care

Composição da comunidade bacteriana do solo sob sistemas integrados na região norte de Mato Grosso.

Os sistemas integrados de produção agrícola estão sendo estudados como uma alternativa aos monocultivos tradicionais no intuíto de tornar a atividade agrícola sustentável, particulamente no estado do Mato Grosso. Entretanto, ainda não se conhece como essa atividade afeta as propriedades microbiológicas do solo. Assim, o objetivo deste trabalho foi avaliar e comparar os efeitos de sistemas integrados na composição da comunidade bacteriana do solo com diferentes monocultivos tendo como área referência uma mata nativa do bioma de transição Cerrado e Amazônia. O local de estudo está localizado na Embrapa Agrossilvipastoril no município de Sinop/MT e foram avaliados sete tratamentos (1-mata nativa, 2-lavoura, 3-pecuária, 4-eucalipto, 5-integração eucalipto lavoura (iEL), 6-integração eucalipto pecuária (iEP), 7-integração eucalipto lavoura pecuária (iELP)) dispostos em quatro blocos casualizados, os quais foram conduzidos segundo as recomendações agronômicas das espécies cultivadas. As amostras de solo foram coletadas nas épocas de chuva e estiagem em 2012 com o auxílio de trado holandês na profundidade de 0-10 cm, considerando 20 pontos aleatórios com caminhamento zigue-zague para fazer uma composta de cada tratamento. A extração de DNA total do solo foi realizada com o kit MoBio UltraClean? Soil DNA (MoBio Laboratories, Carlsbad, CA., EUA) conforme protocolo descrito pelo fabricante e sequenciado pela tecnologia Illumina (Illumina, Inc., CA, USA) com a plataforma MiSeq na Universidade da Florida (Gainesville, EUA). Por meio de ferramentas de bioinformática 2.957.127 sequencias do gene 16S rRNA com alta qualidade foram obtidas, sendo que 2.172.432 de OTUs (Operational Taxonomic Units) foram classificados para o domínio Bacteria, 3.564 Archaea e 262.994 não foram classificados. A composição bacteriana do solo com abundancia relativa ≥ 10 % a nível de filo apresentou três táxons, porém Firmicutes e Proteobacteria apresentaram padrão de comportamento de maior abundancia na estiagem em relação a chuva para mata nativa e iELP e para a lavoura o padrão foi o oposto . A nível de classe, dentre cinco filos apenas Actinobacteria variou o comportamento para iELP e mata nativa com menor abundância na estiagem e maior na chuva, tendo a lavoura o comportamento inverso e para Clostridia ocorreu o mesmo padrão porém ao contrário para os respectivos tratamentos. Analisando a diferença entre os tratamentos por meio da dissimiliradidade a nível de filo, corte de abundância relativa ≥ 0.05 % (18 filos na estiagem e 21 na chuva), o dendrograma baseado na distância euclidiana agrupou mata nativa e iELP como os mais semelhantes e lavoura o mais dissimilar dentre todos os tratamentos. Podemos concluir, que o sistema integrado eucalipto lavoura pecuária apresentou maior semelhança na sua composição bacteriana do solo com a da mata nativa em comparação com os demais tratamentos avaliados, como também manteve o padrão do comportamento da abundancia relativa parecido na época de estiagem, assim demonstrando indício de sustentabilidade

On the universality of anomalous one-dimensional heat conductivity

In one and two dimensions, transport coefficients may diverge in the thermodynamic limit due to long--time correlation of the corresponding currents. The effective asymptotic behaviour is addressed with reference to the problem of heat transport in 1d crystals, modeled by chains of classical nonlinear oscillators. Extensive accurate equilibrium and nonequilibrium numerical simulations confirm that the finite-size thermal conductivity diverges with the system size $L$ as $\kappa \propto L^\alpha$. However, the exponent $\alpha$ deviates systematically from the theoretical prediction $\alpha=1/3$ proposed in a recent paper [O. Narayan, S. Ramaswamy, Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf 89}, 200601 (2002)].Comment: 4 pages, submitted to Phys.Rev.

An Extremely Uncommon Case of Parasitic Infection Presenting as Eosinophilic Ascites in a Young Patient

We report the case of a 24-year-old male patient admitted for recent ascites and splenomegaly of unknown origin. The patient was referred to our institution with complaints of diarrhea, epigastric pain, abdominal cramping and weight loss over the past three weeks. The acute onset presented with colicky abdominal pain and peritoneal effusion. History revealed reduced appetite and weight gain of 7 kg over the last one month. His past medical history and family history was negative. He had no history of alcohol abuse or viral hepatitis infection. Laboratory data revealed normal transaminases and bilirubin levels, and alkaline phosphatase and gammaglutamyltransferase were within normal range. A diagnostic laparoscopy was performed which showed free peritoneal fluid and normal abdominal viscera. Upper gastrointestinal system endoscopy performed a few days later revealed diffuse severe erythematous pangastritis and gastroduodenal gastric reflux. Duodenal biopsies showed chronic nonspecific duodenitis. Antrum and corpus biopsies showed chronic gastritis. The ascitic fluid was straw-colored and sterile with 80% eosinophils. Stool exam was negative for parasitic infection. Treatment with albendazole 400 mg twice daily for 5 days led to the disappearance of ascites and other signs and symptoms. Three months after albendazole treatment the eosinophilic cell count was normal. The final diagnosis was consistent with parasitic infection while the clinical, sonographic and histological findings suggested an eosinophilic ascites. We emphasize the importance of excluding parasitic infection in all patients with eosinophilic ascites. We chose an alternative way (albendazole treatment) to resolve this clinical picture. With our alternative way for excluding this parasitic infection, we treated the patient and then found the cause

Isolation and identification of mycobacteria responsible for tuberculosis of dromedaries in Algeria

peer reviewe

A fluorogenic probe for granzyme B enables in-biopsy evaluation and screening of response to anticancer immunotherapies

Immunotherapy promotes the attack of cancer cells by the immune system; however, it is difficult to detect early responses before changes in tumor size occur. Here, we report the rational design of a fluorogenic peptide able to detect picomolar concentrations of active granzyme B as a biomarker of immune-mediated anticancer action. Through a series of chemical iterations and molecular dynamics simulations, we synthesize a library of FRET peptides and identify probe H5 with an optimal fit into granzyme B. We demonstrate that probe H5 enables the real-time detection of T cell-mediated anticancer activity in mouse tumors and in tumors from lung cancer patients. Furthermore, we show image-based phenotypic screens, which reveal that the AKT kinase inhibitor AZD5363 shows immune-mediated anticancer activity. The reactivity of probe H5 may enable the monitoring of early responses to anticancer treatments using tissue biopsies

Thermal Properties of Graphene, Carbon Nanotubes and Nanostructured Carbon Materials

Recent years witnessed a rapid growth of interest of scientific and engineering communities to thermal properties of materials. Carbon allotropes and derivatives occupy a unique place in terms of their ability to conduct heat. The room-temperature thermal conductivity of carbon materials span an extraordinary large range - of over five orders of magnitude - from the lowest in amorphous carbons to the highest in graphene and carbon nanotubes. I review thermal and thermoelectric properties of carbon materials focusing on recent results for graphene, carbon nanotubes and nanostructured carbon materials with different degrees of disorder. A special attention is given to the unusual size dependence of heat conduction in two-dimensional crystals and, specifically, in graphene. I also describe prospects of applications of graphene and carbon materials for thermal management of electronics.Comment: Review Paper; 37 manuscript pages; 4 figures and 2 boxe